Diamond Dogs Entertain Samford To Open Busy Week At Dudy Noble
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi State's Baseball Bulldogs have plenty of home work this week. The Diamond Dogs, 17-11-1 overall and 6-5 in SEC play, entertain the Samford University Bulldogs Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. to open this week's five-game slate of battles at Dudy Noble Field.
MSU captured its second SEC series in four weeks of league play last weekend, taking two of three games played against defending SEC champion and current SEC Eastern Division-leading Georgia. That series drew 22,269 fans to Dudy Noble Field, including a sun-drenched Saturday gathering of 11,860, the sixth-largest attendance ever at the Diamond Dogs' home field.
Wednesday State hosts Mississippi Valley State (7-29) at 6:30 p.m. and then welcomes SEC Western Division rival Arkansas (17-11, 4-5 SEC) for a three-game SEC weekend series.
Junior right-hander Jacob Blakeney (0-2, 6.87) will draw the Tuesday night start for State against Samford while freshman Bryan Alan (2-4, 3.61) will make his ninth start of the campaign and lead a split pitching tandem for SU.
Samford is coached by former Mississippi State player and assistant coach Tim Parenton, who has guided his Bulldogs to a 19-14 mark and a 6-9 record in Atlantic Sun Conference competition. Parenton, a native of New Orleans, La., and a 1985 MSU graduate, is in his fifth season at Samford. He was a three-year letterman under coach Ron Polk in baseball and four-year letter-winner in football during his collegiate career at Mississippi State.
Senior centerfielder Casey Long leads Mississippi State with a .370 batting average, while first baseman Matthew Brinson (.315), last week's SEC Player of the Week, has totaled a team-leading 34 RBI. Samford brings a .332 team batting average into the game, led by Grant Caldwell (.368), Robert Evans (.364) and Major Allred (.359).
MSU owns a 23-7 lead in its baseball series with Samford. But in last year's meeting in Starkville, Samford handed State a 9-3 setback to snap a string of 11 consecutive wins by Mississippi State.
The two teams are also scheduled to meet May 15 in Birmingham.